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Description: These cacti are tall and narrow with angled stems and numerous spines.Habitat and Distribution: They may be found in true deserts and other dry, open, sunny areasthroughout the Caribbean region, Central America, and the western United States.Edible Parts: The fruits are edible, but some may have a laxative effect.Other Uses: The pulp of the cactus is a good source of water. Break open the stem and scoop outthe pulp.ChufaCyperus esculentusDescription: This very common plant has a triangular stem and grasslike leaves. It grows to aheight of 20 to 60 centimeters. The mature plant has a soft furlike bloom that extends from awhorl of leaves. Tubers 1 to 2.5 centimeters in diameter grow at the ends of the roots.Habitat and Distribution: Chufa grows in moist sandy areas throughout the world. It is often anabundant weed in cultivated fields.Edible Parts: The tubers are edible raw, boiled, or baked. You can also grind them and use themas a coffee substitute.

CoconutCocos nuciferaDescription: This tree has a single, narrow, tall trunk with a cluster of very large leaves at thetop. Each leaf may be over 6 meters long with over 100 pairs of leaflets.Habitat and Distribution: Coconut palms are found throughout the tropics. They are mostabundant near coastal regions.Edible Parts: The nut is a valuable source of food. The milk of the young coconut is rich insugar and vitamins and is an excellent source of liquid. The nut meat is also nutritious but is richin oil. To preserve the meat, spread it in the sun until it is completely dry.Other Uses: Use coconut oil to cook and to protect metal objects from corrosion. Also use theoil to treat saltwater sores, sunburn, and dry skin. Use the oil in improvised torches. Use the treetrunk as building material and the leaves as thatch. Hollow out the large stump for use as a foodcontainer. The coconut husks are good flotation devices and the husk's fibers are used to weaveropes and other items. Use the gauzelike fibers at the leaf bases as strainers or use them to weavea bug net or to make a pad to use on wounds. The husk makes a good abrasive. Dried husk fiberis an excellent tinder. A smoldering husk helps to repel mosquitoes. Smoke caused by drippingcoconut oil in a fire also repels mosquitoes. To render coconut oil, put the coconut meat in thesun, heat it over a slow fire, or boil it in a pot of water. Coconuts washed out to sea are a goodsource of fresh liquid for the sea survivor.Common jujubeZiziphus jujubaDescription: The common jujube is either a deciduous tree growing to a height of 12 meters or alarge shrub, depending upon where it grows and how much water is available for growth. Itsbranches are usually spiny. Its reddish-brown to yellowish-green fruit is oblong to ovoid, 3centimeters or less in diameter, smooth, and sweet in flavor, but has rather dry pulp around acomparatively large stone. Its flowers are green.Habitat and Distribution: The jujube is found in forested areas of temperate regions and indesert scrub and waste areas worldwide. It is common in many of the tropical and subtropicalareas of the Old World. In Africa, it is found mainly bordering the Mediterranean. In Asia, it is

especially common in the drier parts of India and China. The jujube is also found throughout theEast Indies. It can be found bordering some desert areas.Edible Parts: The pulp, crushed in water, makes a refreshing beverage. If time permits, you candry the ripe fruit in the sun like dates. Its fruits are high in vitamins A and C.CranberryVaccinium macrocarponDescription: This plant has tiny leaves arranged alternately. Its stem creeps along the ground. Itsfruits are red berries.Habitat and Distribution: It only grows in open, sunny, wet areas in the colder regions of theNorthern Hemisphere.Edible Parts: The berries are very tart when eaten raw. Cook in a small amount of water andadd sugar, if available, to make a jelly.Other Uses: Cranberries may act as a diuretic. They are useful for treating urinary tractinfections.

DandelionTaraxacum officinaleDescription: Dandelion leaves have a jagged edge, grow close to the ground, and are seldommore than 20 centimeters long. Its flowers are bright yellow. There are several dandelion species.Habitat and Distribution: Dandelions grow in open, sunny locations throughout the NorthernHemisphere.Edible Parts: All parts are edible. Eat the leaves raw or cooked. Boil the roots as a vegetable.Roots roasted and ground are a good coffee substitute. Dandelions are high in vitamins A and Cand in calcium.Other Uses: Use the white juice in the flower stems as glue.Date palmPhoenix dactyliferaDescription: The date palm is a tall, unbranched tree with a crown of huge, compound leaves.Its fruit is yellow when ripe.Habitat and Distribution: This tree grows in arid semitropical regions. It is native to NorthAfrica and the Middle East but has been planted in the arid semitropics in other parts of theworld.Edible Parts: Its fruit is edible fresh but is very bitter if eaten before it is ripe. You can dry thefruits in the sun and preserve them for a long time.Other Uses: The trunks provide valuable building material in desert regions where few othertreelike plants are found. The leaves are durable and you can use them for thatching and asweaving material. The base of the leaves resembles coarse cloth that you can use for scrubbingand cleaning.

DaylilyHemerocallis fulvaDescription: This plant has unspotted, tawny blossoms that open for 1 day only. It has long,swordlike, green basal leaves. Its root is a mass of swollen and elongated tubers.Habitat and Distribution: Daylilies are found worldwide in Tropic and Temperate Zones. Theyare grown as a vegetable in the Orient and as an ornamental plant elsewhere.Edible Parts: The young green leaves are edible raw or cooked. Tubers are also edible raw orcooked. You can eat its flowers raw, but they taste better cooked. You can also fry the flowersfor storage.CAUTIONEating excessive amounts of raw flowers may cause diarrhea.Fishtail palmCaryota urens

Description: Fishtail palms are large trees, at least 18 meters tall. Their leaves are unlike thoseof any other palm; the leaflets are irregular and toothed on the upper margins. All other palmshave either fan-shaped or featherlike leaves. Its massive flowering shoot is borne at the top of thetree and hangs downward.Habitat and Distribution: The fishtail palm is native to the tropics of India, Assam, and Burma.Several related species also exist in Southeast Asia and the Philippines. These palms are found inopen hill country and jungle areas.Edible Parts: The chief food in this palm is the starch stored in large quantities in its trunk. Thejuice from the fishtail palm is very nourishing and you have to drink it shortly after getting itfrom the palm flower shoot. Boil the juice down to get a rich sugar syrup. Use the same methodas for the sugar palm to get the juice. The palm cabbage may be eaten raw or cooked.Goa beanPsophocarpus tetragonolobusDescription: The goa bean is a climbing plant that may cover small shrubs and trees. Its beanpods are 22 centimeters long, its leaves 15 centimeters long, and its flowers are bright blue. Themature pods are 4-angled, with jagged wings on the pods.Habitat and Distribution: This plant grows in tropical Africa, Asia, the East Indies, thePhilippines, and Taiwan. This member of the bean (legume) family serves to illustrate a kind ofedible bean common in the tropics of the Old World. Wild edible beans of this sort are mostfrequently found in clearings and around abandoned garden sites. They are more rare in forestedareas.Edible Parts: You can eat the young pods like string beans. The mature seeds are a valuablesource of protein after parching or roasting them over hot coals. You can germinate the seeds (asyou can many kinds of beans) in damp moss and eat the resultant sprouts. The thickened rootsare edible raw. They are slightly sweet, with the firmness of an apple. You can also eat the youngleaves as a vegetable, raw or steamed.

LotusNelumbo speciesDescription: There are two species of lotus: one has yellow flowers and the other pink flowers.The flowers are large and showy. The leaves, which may float on or rise above the surface of thewater, often reach 1.5 meters in radius. The fruit has a distinctive flattened shape and contains upto 20 hard seeds.Habitat and Distribution: The yellow-flowered lotus is native to North America. The pinkflowered species, which is widespread in the Orient, is planted in many other areas of the world.Lotuses are found in quiet fresh water.Edible Parts: All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked. The underwater parts contain largequantities of starch. Dig the fleshy portions from the mud and bake or boil them. Boil the youngleaves and eat them as a vegetable. The seeds have a pleasant flavor and are nutritious. Eat themraw, or parch and grind them into flour.MalangaXanthosoma caracuDescription: This plant has soft, arrow-shaped leaves, up to 60 centimeters long. The leaveshave no aboveground stems.

Habitat and Distribution: This plant grows widely in the Caribbean region. Look for it in open,sunny fields.Edible Parts: The tubers are rich in starch. Cook them before eating to destroy a poisoncontained in all parts of the plant.WARNINGAlways cook before eating.MangoMangifera indicaDescription: This tree may reach 30 meters in height. It has alternate, simple, shiny, dark greenleaves. Its flowers are small and inconspicuous. Its fruits have a large single seed. There aremany cultivated varieties of mango. Some have red flesh, others yellow or orange, often withmany fibers and a kerosene taste.Habitat and Distribution: This tree grows in warm, moist regions. It is native to northern India,Burma, and western Malaysia. It is now grown throughout the tropics.Edible Parts: The fruits area nutritious food source. The unripe fruit can be peeled and its flesheaten by shredding it and eating it like a salad. The ripe fruit can be peeled and eaten raw.Roasted seed kernels are edible.CAUTIONIf you are sensitive to poison ivy, avoid eating mangoes, as they cause a severe reaction insensitive individuals.

ManiocManihot utillissimaDescription: Manioc is a perennial shrubby plant, 1 to 3 meters tall, with jointed stems and deepgreen, fingerlike leaves. It has large, fleshy rootstocks.Habitat and Distribution: Manioc is widespread in all tropical climates, particularly in moistareas. Although cultivated extensively, it maybe found in abandoned gardens and growing wildin many areas.Edible Parts: The rootstocks are full of starch and high in food value. Two kinds of manioc areknown: bitter and sweet. Both are edible. The bitter type contains poisonous hydrocyanic acid.To prepare manioc, first grind the fresh manioc root into a pulp, then cook it for at least 1 hour toremove the bitter poison from the roots. Then flatten the pulp into cakes and bake as bread.Manioc cakes or flour will keep almost indefinitely if protected against insects and dampness.Wrap them in banana leaves for protection.CAUTIONFor safety, always cook the roots of either type.

MulberryMorus speciesDescription: This tree has alternate, simple, often lobed leaves with rough surfaces. Its fruits areblue or black and many seeded.Habitat and Distribution: Mulberry trees are found in forests, along roadsides, and inabandoned fields in Temperate and Tropical Zones of North America, South America, Europe,Asia, and Africa.Edible Parts: The fruit is edible raw or cooked. It can be dried for eating later.CAUTIONWhen eaten in quantity, mulberry fruit acts as a laxative. Green, unripe fruit can behallucinogenic and cause extreme nausea and cramps.Other Uses: You can shred the inner bark of the tree and use it to make twine or cord.

Nipa palmNipa fruticansDescription: This palm has a short, mainly underground trunk and very large, erect leaves up to6 meters tall. The leaves are divided into leaflets. A flowering head forms on a short erect sternthat rises among the palm leaves. The fruiting (seed) head is dark brown and may be 30centimeters in diameter.Habitat and Distribution: This palm is common on muddy shores in coastal regions throughouteastern Asia.Edible Parts: The young flower stalk and the seeds provide a good source of water and food.Cut the flower stalk and collect the juice. The juice is rich in sugar. The seeds are hard butedible.Other Uses: The leaves are excellent as thatch and coarse weaving material.Papaya or pawpawCarica papayaDescription: The papaya is a small tree 1.8 to 6 meters tall, with a soft, hollow trunk. When cut,the entire plant exudes a milky juice. The trunk is rough and the leaves are crowded at the trunk'sapex. The fruit grows directly from the trunk, among and below the leaves. The fruit is greenbefore ripening. When ripe, it turns yellow or remains greenish with a squashlike appearance.Habitat and Distribution: Papaya is found in rain forests and semievergreen seasonal forests intropical regions and in some temperate regions as well. Look for it in moist areas near clearingsand former habitations. It is also found in open, sunny places in uninhabited jungle areas.Edible Parts: The ripe fruit is high in vitamin C. Eat it raw or cock it like squash. Place greenfruit in the sun to make it ripen quickly. Cook the young papaya leaves, flowers, and stemscarefully, changing the water as for taro.

CAUTIONBe careful not to get the milky sap from the unripe fruit into your eyes. It will cause intense painand temporary--sometimes even permanent--blindness.Other Uses: Use the milky juice of the unripe fruit to tenderize tough meat. Rub the juice on themeat.PinePinus speciesDescription: Pine trees are easily recognized by their needlelike leaves grouped in bundles. Each bundlemay contain one to five needles, the number varying among species. The tree's odor and sticky sapprovide a simple way to distinguish pines from similar looking trees with needlelike leaves.Habitat and Distribution: Pines prefer open, sunny areas. They are found throughout NorthAmerica, Central America, much of the Caribbean region, North Africa, the Middle East,Europe, and some places in Asia.Edible Parts: The seeds of all species are edible. You can collect the young male cones, whichgrow only in the spring, as a survival food. Boil or bake the young cones. The bark of youngtwigs is edible. Peel off the bark of thin twigs. You can chew the juicy inner bark; it is rich insugar and vitamins. Eat the seeds raw or cooked. Green pine needle tea is high in vitamin C.Other Uses : Use the resin to waterproof articles. Also use it as glue. Collect the resin from thetree. If there is not enough resin on the tree, cut a notch in the bark so more sap will seep out. Putthe resin in a container and heat it. The hot resin is your glue. Use it as is or add a small amountof ash dust to strengthen it. Use it immediately. You can use hardened pine resin as anemergency dental filling.

Plantain, broad and narrow leafPlantago speciesDescription: The broad leaf plantain has leaves over 2.5 centimeters across that grow close tothe ground. The flowers are on a spike that rises from the middle of the cluster of leaves. Thenarrow leaf plantain has leaves up to 12 centimeters long and 2.5 centimeters wide, covered withhairs. The leaves form a rosette. The flowers are small and inconspicuous.Habitat and Distribution: Look for these plants in lawns and along roads in the NorthTemperate Zone. This plant is a common weed throughout much of the world.Edible Parts: The young tender leaves are edible raw. Older leaves should be cooked. Seeds areedible raw or roasted.Other Uses: To relieve pain from wounds and sores, wash and soak the entire plant for a shorttime and apply it to the injured area. To treat diarrhea, drink tea made from 28 grams (1 ounce)of the plant leaves boiled in 0.5 liter of water. The seeds and seed husks act as laxatives.Rattan palmCalamus species

Description: The rattan palm is a stout, robust climber. It has hooks on the midrib of its leavesthat it uses to remain attached to trees on which it grows. Sometimes, mature stems grow to 90meters. It has alternate, compound leaves and a whitish flower.Habitat and Distribution: The rattan palm is found from tropical Africa through Asia to theEast Indies and Australia. It grows mainly in rain forests.Edible Parts: Rattan palms hold a considerable amount of starch in their young stem tips. Youcan eat them roasted or raw. In other kinds, a gelatinous pulp, either sweet or sour, surrounds theseeds. You can suck out this pulp. The palm heart is also edible raw or cooked.Other Uses: You can obtain large amounts of potable water by cutting the ends of the longstems (see Chapter 6). The stems can be used to make baskets and fish traps.ReedPhragmites australisDescription: This tall, coarse grass grows to 3.5 meters tall and has gray-green leaves about 4centimeters wide. It has large masses of brown flower branches in early summer. These rarelyproduce grain and become fluffy, gray masses late in the season.Habitat and Distribution: Look for reed in any open, wet area, especially one that has beendisturbed through dredging. Reed is found throughout the temperate regions of both the Northernand Southern Hemispheres.Edible Parts: All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked in any season. Harvest the stems asthey emerge from the soil and boil them. You can also harvest them just before they produceflowers, then dry and beat them into flour. You can also dig up and boil the underground stems,but they are often tough. Seeds are edible raw or boiled, but they are rarely found.

Rose appleEugenia jambosDescription: This tree grows 3 to 9 meters high. It has opposite, simple, dark green, shinyleaves. When fresh, it has fluffy, yellowish-green flowers and red to purple egg-shaped fruit.Habitat and Distribution: This tree is widely planted in all of the tropics. It can also be foundin a semiwild state in thickets, waste places, and secondary forests.Edible Parts: The entire fruit is edible raw or cooked.Sago palmMetroxylon saguDescription: These palms are low trees, rarely over 9 meters tall, with a stout, spiny trunk. Theouter rind is about 5 centimeters thick and hard as bamboo. The rind encloses a spongy inner pithcontaining a high proportion of starch. It has typical palmlike leaves clustered at the tip.

Habitat and Distribution: Sago palm is found in tropical rain forests. It flourishes in damplowlands in the Malay Peninsula, New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and adjacent islands.It is found mainly in swamps and along streams, lakes, and rivers.Edible Parts: These palms, when av

Description: The canna lily is a coarse perennial herb, 90 centimeters to 3 meters tall. The plant grows from a large, thick, underground rootstock that is edible. Its large leaves resemble those of the banana plant but are not so large. The